The Effects of Abattoir Management on Consumer Health in Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State

Abstract

Abattoir management in Nigeria has been of great concern. Almost every day in all urban and rural markets in our country, animals are slaughtered while the meats are sold to the public for consumption. The public health has become prone to a lot of sickness and illnesses that need an urgent overhaul of the abattoir in Okene Local Government Area of Kogi State. The issue of environmental pollution is perceived not simply as a narrow ecological problem of how to ensure a symbolic and cognitive interference between man and the environment. The activities of the abattoir are meant to regain the suitable and edible portion of slaughtered animals for human consumption. In the process, important quantities of waste materials are brought into existence. Health implications of improper waste disposed are enormous and cannot be ignored. Wastes that are not properly disposed can cause waste pollution, which may breed diseases like cholera, typhoid, among others, which point to the fact that a proper understanding of the disposal and management of waste becomes imperative for the study. A good number of researchers point out that slaughter house activities are responsible for the pollution of surface and underground water. In addition to the quality of air which directly or indirectly affect the health of residents living within the vicinity of abattoir. Inadequate discharge of blood and animal feces into streams caused a huge reduction in Biological Oxygen Demand (BOD), in water as well as nutrients over enrichment of the receiving system caused an increased rate of toxic accumulation. The reliability of BAT was determined using Kuder-Richardson 21. By administering the instrument to 30 abattoirs in two different zones in Okene Local Government Area of Kogi state, mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions while analysis of Chi-Square was employed to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance. There should be cordial relationships between policy makers and the abattoirs for provision of essential resources for testing the healthy nature of slaughtered animals like laboratory, slaughtered slabs, and method of butchering, tender for selling meat, among others .